Karl Kessler
Kessler, Karl Fedorovich
Born Nov. 19 (Dec. 1), 1815, in Damrau, district of Königsberg; died Mar. 3 (15), 1881, in St. Petersburg. Russian zoologist.
Kessler graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1838. He became a professor at the University of Kiev in 1844. In 1861 he became a professor, in 1867 a rector, and in 1873 an honorary member of the University of St. Petersburg. He was the author of a number of monographs on the vertebrate fauna of Kiev Province, the northern coasts of the Black and Azov seas, the Crimea, the Neva basin, Lakes Ladoga and Onega, and the Volga. His monograph Fishes of the Aral-Caspian-Pontic Ichthyo-logical Region (1877) was of particular importance. The fishes of Russian waters are represented especially thoroughly in Kessler’s works. In 1868, Kessler helped organize the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, and later became its president for 11 years.